Carpe Diem My Favorite Haiku By ... #4 Buson's sleep with "daki kago"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a joy to see new names appearing at CDHK, and to see the return of haiku poets who were part of CDHK in earlier days of our Kai. That makes me really happy and ... maybe ... proud, because I just try to promote our beloved haiku ...

It's a little while ago (August 27th) that I published an episode of this beautiful special feature in which I ask you to share your favorite haiku written by a classical or non-classical haiku poet and this time I love to ask you which haiku is your favorite written by Yosa Buson (1716-1784), one of the "big-five" haiku poets.

I have read a lot of haiku written by Buson and I have a few favorites, but there is just one which I love to share here. And (of course) I will try to write an all new haiku (as is the goal of this special feature) inspired on that favorite haiku.

Daki Kago

daki kago ya hitoyo fushimi no sasame goto

sleep with "daki kago"!
as with a one-night harlot at Fushimi
exchanging lovers' talks.

© Yosa Buson

(Daki kago = is a body pillow woven from thin strips of bamboo. It was used to sleep away the heat of summer night in the Edo period (1603-1868). To use it means figuratively sleeping together, that is to say, love affairs with a woman. There was an unlicensed district at Fushimi in the Edo period and there lived a lot of harlots. Hitoyo fushimi intimates that a man sleeps with a harlot one night. The place name Fushimi has a pun: fusu means going to bed.)

An extraordinary haiku I think in which Buson uses an extraordinary attribute, a "daki kago" or "bamboo wife" (or "Dutch wife"). In the summer heat, the open bamboo structure is cooler to the touch than fabric pillows or sheets. The daki kago is embraced by the user, as one would have a sleeping companion—this position exposes the maximum amount of the body to cooling breezes.

It will not be easy to write an all new haiku inspired on this beauty by Buson.

sleeping alone
the spring breeze
comforts me

© Chèvrefeuille

Hm ... not as strong as I had hoped, but well ... "the spring breeze" as my "daki kago" nothing wrong with I think.

This episode is open for your submissions at noon (CET) and will remain open until next Thursday October 1st at noon (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem My favorite haiku by ... #3 Adjei Agyei Baah "peak of Kilimanjaro"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

"My favorite haiku by ..." is a wonderful feature here at CDHK and I am glad to present to you an all new episode of this feature.
Recently we had Adjei Agyei Baah, a haiku poet from Ghana, as our featured haiku poet  and I am still in contact with him. Not so long ago he emailed me a series of new haiku and I love to share a few of them here with you ... and I will tell you a little bit more about my favorite haiku written by Adjei.

one nature’s beauty
observed in a single look
peak of Kilimanjaro 

© Adjei Agyei Baah

Credits: Mount Kilimanjaro

Adjei has already shared beautiful haiku, or as he calls them, afriku, with us all at CDHK. I think that Adjei is a very talented haiku poet and I just had to bring him in here again.
Why is this one of my favorite haiku by Adjei? Well ... it's a magnificent scene as you look at the image of Kilimanjaro. This mountain is really beautiful with its peak covered with eternal snow rising above the green-yellow land of Africa. Adjei has caught that beauty in a great way ... it feels like a holy moment, here you can feel the greatness of the Creator.

Kilimanjaro, the name itself is a mystery wreathed in clouds. It might mean Mountain of Light, Mountain of Greatness or Mountain of Caravans. Or it might not. The local people, the Wachagga, don't even have a name for the whole massif, only Kipoo (now known as Kibo) for the familiar snowy peak that stands imperious, overseer of the continent, the summit of Africa.
Kilimanjaro, by any name, is a metaphor for the compelling beauty of East Africa. When you see it, you understand why. Not only is this the highest peak on the African continent; it is also the tallest free-standing mountain in the world, rising in breathtaking isolation from the surrounding coastal scrubland – elevation around 900 meters – to an imperious 5,895 meters (19,336 feet).

Credits: Mount Kilimanjaro (Mountain of Light)

How to catch the beauty of Kilimanjaro (or any other mountain) in a haiku? I really don't know. I have never seen it in real, but as I look at the images I am overwhelmed with emotions. Look at its beauty, its greatness ... it really is a Mountain of Light or as other sources call it Mountain of Greatness.

Adjei's haiku catches that beauty, that overwhelming greatness in a wonderful way ... it makes me speechless and humble. I am imagining standing at the foot of Kilimanjaro ... nailed to the ground, because of its mighty features ... I just have to make it to the peak to adore the beauty of Africa ...

overwhelmed
tears rolling down my cheeks
Africa seen from the sky

© Chèvrefeuille

Awesome ... I can almost sense that moment ... standing on the peak of Kilimanjaro, it feels so real and I have never been there. Thanks to Adjei I can feel Africa, I can feel how magnificent the view is from the top of Kilimanjaro. It feels like Heaven ...

!! More haiku by Adjei Agyei Baah you can find at his weblog Afrikuland !!

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until next Thursday September 3rd at noon (CET).

Carpe Diem My Favorite Haiku by ... #2 Chiyo-Ni's Morning Glory

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at our second episode of Carpe Diem My Favorite Haiku By ... the feature in which I share with you my favorite haiku (only haiku) of classical and non-classical haiku poets/esses. This time I have chosen my favorite haiku by Chiyo-Ni (1703-1775) one of the most known female haiku poets. I see her as part of the so called "big five" and maybe you can remember that we had a month full with only haiku by the "big five" (Basho, Issa, Chiyo-Ni, Buson and Shiki) July 2014.

As I think about Chiyo-Ni than the first haiku which comes in mind is her beautiful Morning Glories haiku and that's one of my favorites by her.

Chiyo-Ni (1703-1775)

asano eikou yoku baketto entanguru watashiha mizuwo motomeru

morning glory!
the well bucket-entangled,
I ask for water

© Chiyo-Ni

This haiku is a beauty because of Chiyo-Ni's feeling towards the Morning Glory which entangled the well bucket. She sees the beauty of the Morning Glory and she doesn't want to ruin it. So she turns to one of our neighbors and asks for water.

Here is my response on this beauty by Chiyo-Ni:

Morning Glories
have overgrown the wooden fence
I take the back one

© Chèvrefeuille (2014)

And another one ... in which the fragile beauty of the Morning Glory is the theme, also from my archives:

in an eye blinck
Morning Glory opens her flowers
just for one day

© Chèvrefeuille (2014)

Two nice haiku I think, but I had to write also a new one, maybe a baransu haiku? I will give it a try:

at sunrise
Morning Glory greets
a new day

© Chèvrefeuille 

Well .... I hope you did like this episode and now it's up to you to choose your favorite haiku by Chiyo-Ni. Tell us why its your favorite and write an all new haiku inspired on the favorite haiku of your choice. Have fun!

This episode is open for your submissions at noon (CET) and will remain open until next Thursday August 27th at noon (CET). Than I will choose another favorite haiku to inspire you.

Carpe Diem My favorite haiku by ... #1 Matsuo Basho (1644-1694): a snowstorm of flowers

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

As you all know, back in October 2012, I started Carpe Diem to promote the beauty of haiku, that beautiful little Japanese poem with only three lines that celebrates the beauty of a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water.
During the years of CDHK's existence I noticed that other Japanese poetry forms, especially tanka, started to 'shine' at CDHK.
Just recently we decided to make CDHK a kind of place to promote other Japanese poetry-forms next to haiku. I do like that change, but it also makes me somewhat melancholic to those first months of CDHK therefore I created a new feature to honor the beauty of haiku.

This new feature I have called "Carpe Diem my favorite haiku by ..." and as you will understand, this new feature is only about haiku and your favorites. This new feature I will publish every Thursday and in every episode I ask you to choose your favorite haiku by the haiku poet/ess chosen by me.

For this first episode I have chosen ... not a surprise I think ... a haiku by Matsuo Basho, whom I see as my master. Basho has written wonderful haiku (more than 1000) and I love them all. Of course I have several favorites, for example 'frogpond', but for this episode I have chosen another haiku by Basho. This haiku I have never shared anywhere as far as I can recall. I think this is a beauty ...

mazu shiru ya Gichiku ga take ni hana no yuki

knowing it first
on the famous musician's flute
a snowstorm of flowers

© Basho (1677) (tr. Jane Reichhold)

Well ... did I say to much? I love to tell you a bit more about this haiku. Gichiku was a real famous shakuhachi player. The shakuhachi was a bamboo flute and at Basho's time Gichiku had a "hit" with "Yoshinoyama" a song about Yoshino the place to be if you love to see Cherry blossoms. It is said that Yoshino has the most beautiful Cherry trees of Japan.
Basho refers to this song by Gichiku, because he thought about Yoshino.

Cherry blossoms in Yoshino

As you all know one of my favorite themes for haiku are Cherry blossoms, I have written a lot of haiku about their fragile beauty and I share the anxiety with the Japanese haiku poets that those fragile blossoms of the Cherry tree are scattered through the wind ...

spring wind

torn apart Sakura blossoms -

a bamboo flute

© Chèvrefeuille

While I was creating this haiku I almost burst out in tears, because this is the pain I sense as the Cherry blossoms of my old Sakura are torn apart by the wind ...

What is the goal of this new feature? Well ... you have to choose a favorite haiku by Basho (for this episode) and try to "revise" the haiku.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 20th at noon (CET). In our next episode of "My favorite haiku by ..." I will choose another haiku poet/ess, which one? I don't know yet, you have to wait.